So I'm almost done with 1_05 and I wanted to post where I was at. I'm only missing shots 2, 7, 8, 16, 17, 18 (they didn't have animated chors on SVN or where missing actions) I'm working on shot 31 which is an outside shot of the castle at night and taking a while to get right. I probably need to tweak shot 29 and 30 for the same reasons.

Here are some examples... All of these images have a post bloom added in photoshop.

Shot 1

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Shot 3

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Shot 4

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Shot 23

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Shot 29

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Shot 30

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Looking very, very nice Colin. Were you using raytraced shadows or zbuffered in those shots (I suppose I can look in SVN huh). Looks like a bit of both ... A few shots look like they could use a bit more fill lighting on the characters (I notice it mainly on scarecrow). Also, the tin castle in the outside shots looks really flat and too CG. Overall though I'm digging what you've done here.

BTW, is there any chance we can increase the transparency of the window? It's blocking all my outside fill lights now almost completely...

Kevin

They're great. It seems like the outer walls of the castle should be brighter.....being made of tin they would possibly reflect more light.

Those are looking really good. Superb lighting job.

One thing I observed is that the frame sizes are not in 16:9 format. Also, IMO. all those scenes would benefit from a camera reposition and reframing to get better composition. I hope your lighting covers enough of the scene to allow that.

That is a misconception. No material can reflect more light than it receives. The castle exterior walls could not posibly be brighter than the background sky.

I realise this. But maybe the sun (or other light source) could be setting stage left. At the moment the castle seems dead.

a background skydome that includes the moon, as well as some moonlight on clouds could be a good source for some brighter reflections...

...I'm also thinking that we could use a tileable image as a patch image, and use it to vary the specularity and reflectivity of the castle walls. It would make it look like it was made of many sheets of metal (kind of like the way they do the hulls on federation starships in STTNG).

Full or partial moon present off camera that could increase the lighting of the castle?

Yeah I agree with the castle comments, but I was reluctant to change any materials on the castle. I also think a full moon would be good.. I may add that. The outside shots need allot more tweaking.

I agree with scarecrow needing more fill as well.

I'm using all shadow maps inside the castle and one raytraced shadow outside.

As far as the lighting.. its all over so I can shoot from any angle. For the most part I left the cameras where the animators had them, but I agree, better angles could be done.

The nice thing about the way I lit the interior is that its global and doesn't change except for the spots on the characters.. so I can just drop the lighting into the chor. or actually the characters into my chor and then adjust 2 lights and bingo its done. If I change the camera angle.. no lights need to change. Once I got the lighting the way I liked it.. doing 30 or so chors went pretty quick. If I wasn't a perfectionist and didn't feel the compulsion to render each scene to double check I could have lit all of scene 1 act 5 in one night.

If you guys aren't working this way, I'd recommend it.. the workflow speeds up allot and implementing changes in lighting goes quick as well.

1_05_02 ready
1_05_07 ready
1_05_08 scene deleted
1_05_16 ready
1_05_17 scene deleted
1_05_18 scene deleted

I agree that a different skydome with clouds and a moon would help in getting more interesting castle exterior walls. I will check what have thac could be used. We bought two set of Dorsch HDRI skies and I can certainly find one that will do the work. Right now, the exterior scenes are lit as if there was a full moon anyway.

Also, Colin, if I may tease your perfectionist side, don't hesitate to move the camera position, angle, focal length, and whateever to get a better composition if you feel it. I personally do that almost systematically when I see a weak composition or staging. I'm sure you can do a good job there too.

I'll see what I can do.

Hi Colin!

I like every interior shots. One thing I see in the exterior scenes, is that there seems to be no light at all coming from inside the castle trough the door. I think it would add depth to the shots.

Michel

Hi Colin!

This shots are wonderful! Nice color,lights and etc.
Cool!

Keep it up!

Cheers,

Sharky

Thanks for the input guys.

I wanted to make a comment on the animations I've seen so far and remind all of the animators not to forget their eye blinks. I was working on a shot of woot last night and the eyes where odd. So I went in and fixed that.. then I added an eye blink over about 4 frames or something like that.. Man what a difference in terms of how the character read and looked.

So if you go through your animations and don't see an eye blink and the character seems to stare a little.. try putting one in where the character shows some emphasis.. ie hand gesture.

Just an idea.. your mileage may vary.

C

Finally got the rest lit.

Heres a shot 31 of the outside of the castle at night.. needs some more work but its a start. And its bloomed as well.

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Excellent.

Yes. Very nice!

Didn't Will Sutton do a brilliant texture job on those cliffs recently for the cover of T.A.o.A.M.? I would prefer to see Will's textures on those cliffs.

The tin castle itself looks superb!

Seems far too well lit for a nighttime scene to me!

Cheers

agreed.. but I had to pump the lights up to get the castle to show up at all. I've been given the go ahead to redo the textures on Tin Castle though so I plan on fixing that. Eventually it'll be nice and bluishly sublte ;-)

I also plan on working on a better nightime skydome as well, so it'll get better. I consider all of these shots preliminary at best as things still evolve quiet a bit on the movie. I'm calling this my baseline though.

C

Colin, I just commited two Dosch night sky maps in the Skydome directory called dh053ll.exr and dh054ll.exr. Give them a try.

thanks Yves. I will.

C